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#540 Colorado’s Ride: Train Smarter with Virtual Pre‑Rides & Velocity
70 Plays5 days ago
Colorado’s Ride has become one of the most respected multi‑day cycling events in the country—and preparation is everything. In Episode #540 of the Grit2Greatness Endurance Podcast, Coaches Rich Soares and Kristen Overton welcome Bill Plock, director of Colorado’s Ride, to break down what makes this event special and how athletes can prepare more intelligently.
We dive into course demands, elevation realities, pacing discipline, and why virtual, coach‑led pre‑rides are a game‑changer for confidence and execution. Plus, we introduce Velocity for Colorado’s Ride, a 12‑week virtual training experience built specifically for the five days of riding.
If Colorado’s Ride is on your calendar—or your bucket list—this episode will help you show up prepared, calm, and ready to ride strong.
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Episode 540
00:00:07
Rich
Welcome to episode 540 of the Grit to Greatness Endurance Podcast. We're your hosts, coaches, Rich Soares and Kristen Overton, and we're on a mission to help endurance athletes train smarter, race stronger, and build the grit it takes to achieve greatness.
00:00:23
Kristin Overton
We have a great episode for you today.
Feature on Colorado's Ride
00:00:26
Kristin Overton
Today's episode, we're spotlighting Colorado's Ride, an event that has firmly established itself as one of the top organized road cycling events in the United States.
00:00:35
Kristin Overton
Recently recognized with a top 10 national ranking by USA Today, Colorado's Ride combines world-class scenery, athletes' first organization, and decades of trusted leadership with Bill, of course. we'll We'll explore what makes the ride special, how virtual course pre-rides elevate preparation, and the legacy of Bill Pluck, whose leadership continues to shape endurance sports in Colorado.
00:01:00
bill
How about that?
00:01:01
Rich
Hey buddy, welcome.
00:01:02
bill
yeah
00:01:02
Rich
Glad you're back.
00:01:03
bill
Yeah, thanks for having me. Be fun to talk about.
00:01:05
Rich
Feels like old times.
00:01:06
bill
Yeah, but well definitely does. I was at Bicycle Colorado last night and saw a lot of the same folks you and I have known over the years doing all kinds of stuff. And i actually won a grand, I won one of the big prizes last night. I bought a they do the deck of cards where you buy a card for a hundred bucks. And then if that same card is drawn on stage, then they had one of five like super prizes.
00:01:29
bill
And so one, a week or two nights stay at sun and lap or something to help and veil and, for and two, four rounds of golf at the golf course there.
00:01:40
Rich
what That's awesome.
00:01:41
bill
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm kind of excited about that.
00:01:41
Kristin Overton
Wow, that's awesome.
00:01:44
Rich
That's a score, brother.
00:01:46
Kristin Overton
Big time.
00:01:46
bill
Yeah, for sure.
00:01:46
Rich
That's awesome.
Journey to Ride Directorship
00:01:47
bill
So anyway,
00:01:49
Rich
well that's awesome you know your ties to the to to colorado cycling goes way back you know to we had 303 cycling 303 triathlon we you know later became you know became 303 endurance podcast maybe just for a second you could you just like maybe share your connection to kind of cycling here and you know just kind of a high level resume from from working at 303 and what you did at 303 to ride directing
00:02:19
Rich
ridedirecting now
00:02:20
bill
Yeah, it's, uh, it was a journey of starting as a volunteer content creator for 303 triathlon actually with Dana and just doing some stories here and there. And that kind of evolved into going to races and taking some pictures and, you know, interviewing athletes and maybe writing a story about it. And then the opportunity came when the two 303 cycling and 303 triathlon merged and I took on a leadership role with that and covered a lot of cycling. We continued to do all the triathlon. I'm wearing an Ironman championship and on the back it says media.
00:02:56
bill
So that was, those were the days when we'd go to the, you know, we've talked about this and, so I, you know, we, and I did a lot of racing myself as a, you know, all the way from sprint triathlons to full Ironmans. I've never really raced bikes, but I've done a lot of biking events as a, just touring. I've never raced bikes other than a couple time trials.
00:03:15
bill
So I don't have any like crit experience or road racing experience. Like some of the things you're doing now with, with Mike Murphy, you're getting a whole bunch of new experiences. So that's a whole nother conversation, but,
00:03:24
Rich
Yeah.
00:03:27
bill
So then I, you know, 303 was going on for a long time and I had the opportunity to be the ride director for a Ride the Rockies in 2022. And I i had maybe not quite two months lead time.
00:03:43
bill
And there was the ride director was there, left and it was a complete disaster. And there was... knew you had no permits we haven't even applied for most of the permits we had the ride was scheduled so it was a learning a huge learning experience i mean i just dove right in i had never even you know directed my daughter's 5k race at her elementary school i had no it was just in just being around it a lot going to a lot of races going to a lot of events participating in things And maybe just my personality, they thought I'd be good at doing that.
00:04:17
bill
I said a lot of pleases and sorries and thank yous as we mowed over all of the logistics and the meeting with towns and say, sorry, we're got you know we're way late, i get it and all of that sort of thing. But it yeah all to be said, I learned a lot about how these things happen, and I'm still learning a lot. I mean, there's always, every town's little different, every county's a little different to work with.
Sustainability of Colorado's Ride
00:04:40
bill
You know, you have, I mean, I have a meeting in a week and a half with the county commissioners of Chaffa County, Chaffee County, just because of the size of our thing, which isn't that big, but they're required to meet and I'm sure it'll be fine, but they want to pick through our emergency plan, our communications plan. They want to see what our medical plan is, how we're going to deal with this thing or that thing. i don't even know. But back in 2022 with Ride the Rockies, we went through Chaffee County as well.
00:05:09
bill
Denver, I applied for a permit like four weeks before the ride, and I got contacted by a sheriff who said, you might want to check this part of your route, but otherwise they didn't care.
00:05:20
bill
So the atmosphere is totally different four years later in Colorado because of the growth out here, the the mountain blows up, and they have a lot of different regulations, lot more cost. I mean, the cost is...
00:05:34
bill
I mean, quadruple in permits. it's It's really pretty unfortunate, I think, because it makes doing this really that much harder and that much more expensive.
00:05:44
Rich
Right.
00:05:45
bill
So
00:05:45
Rich
Yeah.
00:05:45
Kristin Overton
Yeah, a lot more logistics for sure. Yeah.
00:05:48
bill
we started Colorado's ride, and it'll be four years ago this coming August. So when I directed Ride the Rockies, I did not come back to the following year.
00:06:00
bill
Honestly, kind of saw the writing on the wall that that probably was not a good setup. It wasn't sustainable that the way they were doing it. And so we had a better idea.
00:06:11
bill
We had different logistics. We kept it smaller. we There's a million things we do different to try to keep the cost low. and In check, but also make it sustainable and, you know, ride the Rockies lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and it's just not sustainable, no matter how big the company is that owns And they, at some point they're going to say, we're not going
Building Rider Community
00:06:31
bill
to do this. So, so we've, we've been successful so far and we're growing and still like to get a little more growth, but it's, you know, building a community as we do it.
00:06:43
Rich
Well, you know, we we talked about this just a couple months ago. we we had John to talk about this. You were at the time you had been nominated for one of the top, or I should say you Colorado's ride had been nominated for, to be in the top 10 list of the best rides in the nation, organized rides in the nation.
00:07:04
bill
Yeah.
00:07:05
Rich
And, it had not been announced when we recorded. but since then, The People's Vote put Colorado's Ride five number five in the top 10.
00:07:16
bill
Yeah.
00:07:17
Rich
That's amazing.
00:07:18
bill
Oh, I was thrilled. I don't even, honestly, I don't even know how we got nominated. I mean, you, we, number four was Ragbrai, you know, Bike New York was two and I forget the first one. And there's like these iconic, longstanding, big, huge rides, way bigger than us.
00:07:35
bill
Tour of Tucson was on the top 10. Tour of the Moon made the top 10. I think there were seven. That was a Colorado company. I met the new director of that organization last night, as matter of fact, and, We both congratulate each other. But yeah, as it was super awesome. And i it meant a lot. you know I don't know it's translating to more people coming, but it's a good thing. And yeah, says a lot.
00:07:59
Rich
Yeah, it sure does.
00:08:00
Kristin Overton
Yeah, that's, that's, I mean, that's incredible. So awesome. And, you know, just me growing up in Colorado and, you know, hearing about Ride the Rockies, I mean, I feel like that, that rate that ride has been around for ages and always hearing about it and wanting to do it, but never doing it.
00:08:12
bill
Yeah.
00:08:16
Kristin Overton
But then, you know, it morphing into into something different, but still, you know, looking at at the roots and, you know, just looks incredible.
00:08:25
Kristin Overton
Yeah. So, you know, I guess one of my questions for you is like, you know, for someone hearing about the ride for the first time, you know, or somebody who's just kind of on on the fence about, you know, oh, should I do this? Should I not do this? What do you think that makes the experience, you know, something that a writer just doesn't want to miss?
00:08:48
bill
Well, it's, it's a hard question in some levels because i get this question often is like, well, can I do it? How hard is it? Is it, you know? And so you come at it it with so many different levels of ability that what I do think about our ride is good is that it it is, can be do, it can be done by a really wide spectrum of people. And that, and the reason for that, in my opinion, We don't have like crushing routes. We have one big day the first day, okay, fine.
00:09:20
bill
But then the next day you can make it as short as you want almost, then 20 miles, you know, you can, and then that you get to slide it. But before noon, you can hang out and you can go to hot end of the pool or you can go back up to the hot springs or whatever. And then the third day, yeah, it's another fairly good day over Monarch, but it's not crazy.
00:09:40
bill
When I did ride the Rockies in 2022, we had three 100 day routes.
Virtual Pre-Rides and Altitude Challenges
00:09:44
bill
I mean, that's that's a lot.
00:09:44
Rich
Mm-hmm.
00:09:45
Kristin Overton
yeah
00:09:46
bill
And I think we're, if you look at our demographics, where most of most of our riders are, you know, above 50. And they don't want us to century rides as much.
00:10:00
bill
I think there's always, so i guess what I'm saying is we have the challenge, but we also have a good way to make it achievable. So somebody isn't like frustrated and feeling like they're not going to make it and getting sagged or whatever.
00:10:15
bill
And I will say, I think our size really works well. We're 300 people ish, you know, ride the Rockies or some of these other ones were 2000 to 3000 once upon a time, which just makes it fun.
00:10:26
Kristin Overton
Right?
00:10:27
bill
I mean, in the roads really obvious there's a ride and it's kind of cool that way. But with our ride, I think, and Rich can attest to this, you you tend to kind of find your group during the week.
00:10:38
bill
And there's a lot of like really awesome camaraderie that gets built. and And because it's smaller, it's more obvious, at least to me as a ride director. I can really tell who's riding with who, and it becomes a thing. And they always ride together. And it makes it my job a lot easier to kind of track people. and And we do we one thing we do and to kind of make that happen is, well, two things really.
00:11:02
bill
We start at aer at the same time. Like we have a mass start. It's lit. It's not a race. We're casual about it. But it keeps everybody kind of together. and then that sort of strings out. People find their people because everybody started together.
00:11:18
bill
And then we have the the license plate with people's name on it. That's like your bid that goes on your, yeah. And that just that just creates a lot of conversation and people talk.
00:11:24
Kristin Overton
Oh, right.
00:11:28
bill
And I think this year our license plate is going to have the person's hometown on it just so that, you know, like oh, I'm from Erie too. You know, on next thing you know, you're sparking up a conversation about something.
00:11:39
Kristin Overton
That's, that's awesome. Like, you know, just, and who knows, you get somebody, oh, I'm from Middletown, Connecticut, which is where I live now, you know, like somewhere like, wow, you you came out for this ride.
00:11:47
bill
Yeah.
00:11:50
Kristin Overton
Like, yeah, like who would miss this ride? Right.
00:11:54
bill
Yep. That's the idea.
00:11:56
Kristin Overton
That's great.
00:11:57
Rich
Friendships, I mean, like friendships develop. I mean, like the people who I rode with that week in particular, I, you know, Zed, you know, we were in touch constantly and now, you know, he's introduced me to Mike Murphy.
00:12:11
Rich
So this is like, you know, the Colorado's ride brings people together and you're right. You do kind of develop some bonds and friendships. I probably have a dozen or so new Facebook friends that came out of that week, just that one week, you know?
00:12:24
bill
You have figured
00:12:27
Rich
So it's really kind of cool. I, you know, I, I, I'm really getting excited about this course as we've been thinking about this and planning out the, yeah the routes to put on, velocity.
00:12:38
Rich
we were gonna talk more about this and in a little bit, but it really has me like, you know, really jonesing and figuring out how am I going to get there and do nationals this year? And I am going to figure it out, Bill.
00:12:48
bill
it out?
00:12:49
Rich
So, I might not be there. i don't think I don't think I'm going to be able to be back in time for day one, but hopefully I can i can pick up with y'all in Buena Vista.
00:13:01
bill
Oh, yeah. Okay, cool.
00:13:03
Rich
Yeah, it'd be a lot of fun.
00:13:03
Kristin Overton
That would be amazing.
00:13:06
Rich
cause
00:13:06
bill
Is Mike
00:13:06
Kristin Overton
Rick and I were just talking about that. and go ahead.
00:13:10
Rich
Well, Mike is, Mike's trying to figure it out too. he is really has his eyes set. I shouldn't say that. He's got his mindset on doing track nationals, which is the same weekend as Milwaukee, USA triathlon nationals.
00:13:27
bill
Okay.
00:13:27
Rich
So he might be in the same boat. If we were going to do it, it would be one of those things.
00:13:29
bill
Yeah, yeah.
00:13:32
Rich
We wouldn't get there until, until Monday night. So,
00:13:35
bill
Gotcha.
00:13:36
Rich
But you know the these the the the course, you know you're you're right.
00:13:37
bill
Let's leave your thought.
00:13:41
Rich
the the The longest distance is 66 miles as I look through the courses here. But you know maybe maybe could if we could just go in a little bit more detail in terms of like, what are the demands? like you know like you know What kind of climbing you know should people expect? what you know you know at What altitudes are we at? you know you know you know Maybe just give us a little bit of peek about you know behind the scenes around you like how much how much training do you think you might need for something like this?
00:14:10
bill
man, where are you starting? and Right. As always the question, like, where, where, what's your baseline, what's your baseline. But I mean, the first day is going to be the hardest in my opinion. Cause you're, you're going to go over Cottonwood pass, which is the third highest pass in Colorado and it's almost 12,000 feet. Right. So you're definitely to have some altitude and it's, it's not, it's not crazy steep. It's better than coming from the Buena Vista side, but it's a pretty long sustained climb. You know,
00:14:39
bill
40, I think it's about 5,000 feet of climbing altogether. So it's, you know, 70, the first day is the longest. I think it's 73. But it's beautiful. And then going up the Taylor river is absolutely gorgeous and Taylor reservoir and up over cottonwood. its And it's obviously in all that area is stunning at the top. And then it's a, it's a pretty fast downhill into point of vista and you're done.
00:15:02
bill
So, you know, kind of get that mindset of the climb that in theory, we leave at say seven 30, you should be at the top of, a Cottonwood pass probably, you know, between I'd say 11 and 1230.
00:15:20
bill
And, and then from there, it's kind of a downhill all the way to BV.
00:15:25
Rich
Late lunch down to BV. Yeah.
00:15:26
bill
Great. So that's, that's the mile. I think that's the mind, you know, you get those mindsets where you just got to, put your head down a little bit and and get through the the harder hour, let's say.
00:15:37
bill
because i don't think you're not going to sustain a really steep climb for more than that.
00:15:43
Rich
But if we were going to, for example, feature some segments of the ride, of that particular ride, it would probably be good to feature some of that climb, I imagine.
00:15:51
bill
Absolutely.
00:15:51
Rich
Give people, yeah, good, okay.
00:15:53
bill
Yeah, I think people, people, we have more than half our ride is from out of state. And so I think if they have the opportunity to get on this platform and try the grade of what these roads are, that will really give them a good heads up.
00:16:08
bill
do I do think the other thing to think about, and and you guys maybe you can talk about it, is altitude awareness and some of the things that you can do to sort of prevent an illness. there's Some people are just super super prone to it.
00:16:23
bill
Some people try to get there early. I know there's a few drugs out there that people can take to try to minimize, but I don't know what the side effects of those are. So there's definitely ways to it, hydration obviously is a huge thing, right? So that's probably the, I would say i seen I've seen that more than anything as a reason why somebody didn't get to the top is because it just it's just the altitude just got to them.
00:16:48
Kristin Overton
Compared to the actual climbing, right? you know Yeah, yeah.
00:16:50
bill
Right.
00:16:51
Kristin Overton
yeah
00:16:52
bill
And that's honestly not been that many people. So I can tell you over the last three years, we've barely sagged anybody. You know, I think the group mentality is there that always helps too. When you're seeing other people that might look like they're suffering more than you still doing it. And you're like, all right, well, if that person can suck it up, I can still suck it up. You know, I think that totally plays into the group rise. I think it's one of the best things about doing a group ride is, is that aspect.
00:17:21
Rich
Yeah. Well, you know, and what our hope is, is that by doing a group ride, like a, a, a virtual ride that is at the same grade, we can be talking about things like that during the course of the, of the group ride.
00:17:34
Rich
Yeah. We're at this, you know, we're at this grade. We're trying to keep this cadence, you know, let's talk about your gearing.
00:17:40
bill
Right.
00:17:42
Rich
And then let's also talk about like, how should you be hydrating at elevation? How, why is it different? Why are you losing more moisture? at higher elevations, you know beyond your sweat rate, just because of the altitude.
00:17:54
bill
right
00:17:56
Rich
and
00:17:56
bill
Do you lose, going to question you on that. Do you actually lose more moisture or do you just feel like you don't, you because it's so dry, you and you met let's say you're from Iowa where you barely can move outside and you're sweating, but in the high altitude of Colorado and all that sun exposure, are you really losing more moisture just it feels like you're losing more moisture?
00:18:18
Rich
take the skin of it Take the skin and the sweat out of it. Just talk about respiration and the amount of water you're losing through respiration is more at altitude than it is at sea level because of the pressure.
00:18:32
bill
Oh, interesting.
00:18:33
Kristin Overton
And not only that is you don't, you don't realize you're losing that because you're not, you don't feel the sweat like you do at low altitude or when it's humid. And so you're like, oh, I'm dry.
00:18:47
Kristin Overton
So I must not be sweating that much. So I don't need that much.
00:18:49
bill
Right.
00:18:51
Kristin Overton
So I think it's, you know it's combination of those things for sure.
00:18:54
bill
But the altitude and the pressure, are interesting.
00:18:55
Kristin Overton
Mm-hmm.
00:18:58
bill
hu
00:18:58
Kristin Overton
So yeah, just like Rich said, you know, having those conversations with people as you're riding the course, or even, you know, you're taking that first climb on the first day in a segment and okay, you know, we're talking about hydration, but we're also talking about pacing, like don't go out, you know, hitting it hard.
00:19:13
Rich
Amen.
00:19:19
Kristin Overton
And then of a sudden you just like, you're in the middle of this climb and just sucking wind.
00:19:25
bill
is
00:19:25
Kristin Overton
really learning to to pace it.
00:19:29
bill
Is it fair to say that if somebody knows their lactic threshold, for example, and they they ride to certain zone, heart rate zones based on that, is there is that curve changed with altitude?
00:19:45
Rich
Not the heart rate. The heart rate should stay the same. Those heart rate zones should stay the same. i mean, those are your heart rate zones.
00:19:54
bill
Okay.
00:19:54
Rich
It's your power that will adjust. And we can talk through like, you know, if you're, yeah, if your power is, let's say your threshold power at sea level is, let's just say 220 Watts.
00:19:58
bill
That's what I was getting at.
00:20:06
Rich
Well, at that altitude, it could be 180, know, or or, you know.
00:20:13
bill
That's what I was getting at. I was wondering, yeah.
00:20:15
Kristin Overton
Yeah. It'll be kind inversely proportional to the, to the heart rate because yeah, your heart rate zones are going to stay the same, but you're, you're trying to climb at that altitude and your heart rate's going to go up faster.
00:20:16
bill
Cause I wonder if people have come into this
00:20:26
Kristin Overton
So that,
00:20:27
Rich
To hold the same power. Yeah.
00:20:28
Kristin Overton
to hold the same power. So ultimately your power is coming down to be able to, to do that.
00:20:29
Rich
Yeah.
00:20:34
bill
So if somebody were, I mean, these are probably not many people on this ride, but but if there were people that were riding to power and used to riding to power and they were saying, oh, I should be going 190 watts up this hill, they need to figure out how to adjust that.
00:20:48
Rich
Yeah, absolutely. And, and we have some ways that we can actually talk people through that.
00:20:49
Kristin Overton
Okay.
00:20:52
Rich
We can, they, know, if they can give us their kind of their hometown power, if you will, like where did they do that FTP test? Any one of us can, can do that conversion for them.
00:21:04
bill
Okay. Good to know.
00:21:05
Kristin Overton
Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:05
Rich
Yeah. That might be actually be a fun topic. Actually, we could actually play around with that right now. If you want, Bill, you want to play around with this? This is kind of fun. Here we go. We're going to go totally off script here for a second.
00:21:18
Rich
And I am going to take just a random athlete here that I've got. And I'm going to give you... Watch this. We are going to go to bike. I've got a female athlete that I'm working on here and her zone four power level is her range to Watts sea level
00:21:48
bill
OK.
00:21:49
Rich
let's put her up to what's our what's our highest altitude on that climb
00:21:54
bill
Say 11,800. 60 degrees.
00:21:59
Rich
And we'll say temperature is, we think this temperature would be 60
00:22:04
bill
sixty degrees
Unique Ride Routes and Equipment Adaptation
00:22:07
Rich
degrees.
00:22:10
Rich
It's going to be closer to 180 to two, sorry, 154 to 179. It's a big difference.
00:22:16
bill
That's a big difference.
00:22:19
Rich
Yeah.
00:22:20
bill
So that athlete, if they don't think about that and they're like, oh my God, my heart, my heart.
00:22:20
Rich
So
00:22:24
Rich
why is my heart rate so high?
00:22:25
Kristin Overton
Yeah. what Yeah, what's happening?
00:22:25
Rich
Yeah.
00:22:25
bill
Yeah.
00:22:27
Kristin Overton
Yeah.
00:22:27
Rich
Why, am why am I like, you know, totally exhausted? Why am I, you know, I can't get enough get gels all of a sudden, you know, can't eat enough food.
00:22:35
bill
Right. Interesting.
00:22:37
Rich
Yeah.
00:22:38
bill
Hmm. Okie-dokie.
00:22:40
Rich
Awesome. well Well, thanks for helping us kind of unpack that a little bit, just to help you know writers get a sense of, or listeners get a sense of, hey, well, you know what do I have to prepare for?
00:22:41
Kristin Overton
That's cool.
00:22:50
Rich
Why would i even need to train for this? Why would it be good to you know preview the course? So.
00:22:55
bill
Yeah.
00:22:57
Kristin Overton
I guess one question I have for you about, you know, the the the athletes that have done the ride before and just, you know, showing up, knowing the course, knowing the grades and elevations, like what do you notice about them versus, you know, Joe Schmo who who's just said, oh, I'm going to do this ride. And, you know, that has no idea what to expect.
00:23:22
bill
I would say because we did our first three years on the same route, there were you know there are some people that have done all three years, Zed being one of them. We have had many folks that have done maybe two times.
00:23:35
bill
And I definitely would hear things like, they they would compare their Strava, let's say they would look at, they're going to do this section faster. They want to, they want to PR Wolf Creek. They want to, you know, they definitely start to build targets in their mind after having done the course.
00:23:52
bill
You know, now with a new route, you won't have as much of that, of course, but there's definitely going to be a fair number of people that have probably done good number of these roads.
00:23:56
Kristin Overton
Right. right
00:24:03
bill
We're not, I would say our route and one place that might be interesting for a virtual ride, because Cottonwood Pass has probably been done by quite a few people that could be doing this ride. I mean, right Ride the Rockies has done it.
00:24:17
bill
You know, it's been around a long time. it's It's fairly newly paved, so it's a bit of a newer, fully paved overpass. But in Monarch Pass, you know, probably fair number of people may have done that as well.
00:24:30
bill
But what probably people haven't done is our fourth day, which is where we ride from Gunnison along the Gunnison River up through up into the Black Canyon, the Kirikanti National Recreation District.
00:24:45
bill
And we go to an overlook of the Black Canyon called Needles Rock. And it's not... I've ridden it before as part of the West Elk Classic, which is now a defunct tour, but it's on Highway 92.
00:25:01
bill
And it's not steep, but it's long pretty long and steady to get in. I forget the elevation. I should pull it up. But I think we gained about 3,000 feet on on that route on that way out.
00:25:12
bill
And that's not all in one spot. But you know it's a pretty good, long, sustained hill. And you got a great view at the top. We'll have a great aid station. So it should be a lot of fun.
00:25:21
bill
But that would be a good part of the course to ride because definitely not many people done that.
00:25:27
Kristin Overton
Yeah. So advantage, you know, for those, those that have already done it that, you know, haven't seen some of those new sections to, you know jump on velocity, see those new sections and be ready for it or go to the old sections and try to PR, like you said, beat beat their Strava time.
00:25:39
bill
Yeah.
00:25:42
bill
Yeah, exactly.
00:25:44
Kristin Overton
Right. Yeah.
00:25:44
bill
Great. Totally.
00:25:46
Kristin Overton
yeah
00:25:47
Rich
you So I feel like we've really kind of talked a lot about like you know what kind of you know what kind of what kind of yeah preparation needs to happen, you know what kind of writer types are we going to have out there. Hopefully the folks that you know need the preparation the most will you know find this opportunity to be helpful. Keo, if you don't mind, I'm going to go off script here just a little bit.
00:26:10
Rich
and
00:26:10
Kristin Overton
Yeah, for sure.
00:26:11
Rich
You know, we're creating an opportunity for, you know, for people who've registered for Colorado's ride to pre-ride one hour long segments, each of the five, five day courses. We've been talking about this a little bit. How do you see, you know, a virtual, like that virtual experience, like really helping folks, you know, where could you think, think it might help them the most or what kind of athlete do they help the most?
00:26:35
bill
I think it's people that haven't ridden a lot in the mountains.
00:26:39
Rich
Yeah.
00:26:39
bill
I mean, they have a smart trainer, which they have to have to do this velocity thing, chances are they've done whatever program they've done and they've ridden hills, no doubt about it.
00:26:54
bill
I don't know how many people do longer hills usually. you know i think they're i think these to like a Zwift or something like that. Tends to be more punchy stuff and instead of sustained stuff.
00:27:07
bill
It's been my experience. I mean, obviously, if you're doing a real course on Ruby or something like that, you've probably done some hills. I think it's for people that haven't done long sustained climbs is going to be the best benefit.
00:27:22
Rich
Gotcha. Yeah. So nice long hill sets and really understanding what that grade is. And you know the, the other thing I i guess I wonder sort of related to that, do you run into folks who haven't really thought too much about the gearing that they're going to need? Like in other words, they've got a bike that's geared for more flat courses and all and they find, oh, I'm riding at 50 at a cadence of 50 here because i just don't have the gears.
00:27:46
bill
Oh, definitely has been an issue. I mean, it's, it's a hard one though, because as you know, it's kind of like, well, if you have a 52 38 front instead of a 50 34, which most people have in Colorado, it's not cheap to change that.
00:28:03
bill
So you kind of have to live with it a lot of times. And you can definitely get a rear cluster at a more affordable rate as long as your derailleur can handle the longer chain.
00:28:14
bill
There's always that. So I think people tend to just suck it up if they don't have the right gears. But I will say most people that I noticed on the on our rides the last three years, you didn't see a lot of old bikes.
00:28:27
bill
Like most of them had pretty good gearing. I know i mean know there's some people that didn't, but I feel like they were pretty well prepared for what they were getting into. And I think there are a lot of people have done a ride the Rockies. they They have a bike that they know is going to be okay for that.
00:28:43
bill
Didn't see any tri bikes out there.
00:28:46
Kristin Overton
I was just going to comment on that, thinking about that.
00:28:48
bill
Yep. And you see a lot more e-bikes.
00:28:50
Rich
There's still time. Yeah.
00:28:51
bill
I mean, speaking of that too, because that that's a big growing part of the demographic.
00:28:53
Kristin Overton
Oh, yeah.
00:28:57
bill
I would guess we probably have... I need to probably send a survey out because you wanna make sure you have enough power at camp for people to recharge their back, their bike battery. But I'm going to say between 15 and 20% for e-bikes.
00:29:11
Rich
Yeah. Wow.
00:29:12
bill
And, and most of those e-bikes are, you know, they're class one, they look like a road bike for the most part, but we've had, we've had a couple of people.
00:29:13
Rich
That's it.
00:29:20
bill
I can recall a woman that had a pretty beefy straight handlebar. You know, big, probably 55 tires. And she she had a great time.
00:29:31
bill
She wore one of the those helmets with the hats. and And she was kind of near the back most of the time because she was not she was just having fun.
00:29:34
Kristin Overton
Thank you.
00:29:39
bill
Her bike probably weighed 60 pounds, if if not more. And it was great from a safety standpoint because we called her hat lady on all the mics. You know, like, hey, where's hat lady? Because we always knew she was kind of near the end.
00:29:53
bill
It was really easy to find. And it so that helps. I know those are weird things, but we had a guy last year who, oh my gosh, this guy, he he didn't wear a helmet most of the time.
00:30:08
bill
And it was driving me bonkers. He had a helmet that was, he carried a backpack and he would he strapped a helmet on the backpack and he didn't wear it. And he he kind of looked,
00:30:20
bill
grumpy and he was a bigger guy.
00:30:21
Rich
Thank you.
00:30:22
bill
And i I, was just a little intimidated to confront him about it because we looked up the law. There's no law that says he has to do it. Our ins insurance doesn't say writers, are you know, it's sort of a vague thing out there.
00:30:35
bill
And then finally said that to him, I'm like, dude, can you just do me a favor and at least wear that helmet going down the hills? I mean, i really brother, you wear it all the time. Long story short. So he was on a bike,
00:30:48
bill
I think he had flat pedals. It was it was a road bike. And he wore like, I don't think he, i think he just wore jean shorts a few times and he didn't wear bike shorts.
00:31:00
bill
And he carried this backpack. And he, after I got to know him, we started joking around things and he had changed his lifestyle. I think he lost some weight, stopped drinking or smoking whatever it was. And this was his way to like, see what he could do.
00:31:15
bill
And he gave me a backpack, the backpack he was carrying and weighed like 20, 25 pounds. I'm like, what's in your backpack? And he pulls out an extra tire and tubes and tools and food. I'm like, I don't remember what his name is. Let's say his name's John. I'm like, John, you know, we have all these aid stations. You know, we have mechanics. We, you don't need to carry any of that.
00:31:39
bill
He's like, no, I just want to have my stuff. I'm like, Okay. It's your ride, man. And he made every mile. And he made all the cutoff times. And it was a pretty awesome story, actually.
Community Impact and Partnerships
00:31:52
Rich
Reminds me of our interview with Bob Babbitt years ago and him talking about his, uh, his, uh, first iron man and wearing the jean cutoffs and the banana seat, uh, you know,
00:31:52
Kristin Overton
That's great.
00:31:55
bill
Yeah.
00:32:00
bill
Right.
00:32:03
bill
Had the wine and bread stuffed in his shirt. Remember was making sandwiches.
00:32:08
Rich
yep. That's awesome.
00:32:10
bill
Yeah. So, so I think, you know, that those two examples right there that i mentioned, it kind of gives you a glimpse that this is a attainable ride for most anybody. And I think that's something that I think is important.
00:32:21
Rich
Yeah.
00:32:24
Rich
Okay. How about one more question from you and then I'm all, and I'll, and I'll bring us home.
00:32:30
Kristin Overton
yeah, I guess,
00:32:50
Kristin Overton
Like what's, what's, what's the biggest draw like that? That's just like a, you know,
00:32:57
bill
I mean, the answer is yes.
00:32:58
Kristin Overton
It's curious question to me You know, I mean, my my draw to it is it's like it's it's Colorado and it's like the most beautiful scenery in the world.
00:32:58
bill
so
00:33:04
Kristin Overton
like And I love to ride, so I would just love to do it. But, you know, that might not be the draw for everybody.
00:33:10
bill
I mean, not to, I mean, the answer is really very complex, right? Everybody has, everybody's going to get to something different out of it. I think, I think. I think the overarching thing is achievement and just getting through the week and then having a good experience and hopefully doing it in a manner that they hope they could.
00:33:31
bill
And I think most people do do that. I don't like, you know, there's probably a few people that just had a be rough week for whatever reason. They weren't feeling good or, mechanical problems or whatever it might be. And those folks are probably pretty disappointed, but I would say 90% of the people that come through that last finish line are pretty, pretty darn happy and pretty smiling for accomplishing it.
00:33:52
bill
And then there's like these little micro factors, like I'll just give you this example. So for the last couple of years, we've partnered with the Pagosa mountain bike high school team, and they've been at the top of Wolf Creek pass and and they've given out peaches and it's, you know, they try to get donations and they'll get like a thousand dollars, which is for that team is huge.
00:34:12
bill
And what happened with that is that there was a dual benefit that neither side of that story thought was coming. The kids, when they were at the top, there was probably 15 of them and they would take the bikes from the riders and sha rack them up for them or whatever.
00:34:28
bill
And then the, And they cheer and be silly and just do all the things a high school team's gonna do. And then the writers, you know they're hurting coming up the road and all sudden there's these cheering kids and this, and that, and the other.
00:34:44
bill
So I had several people at the end of the ride say that was their favorite part of the whole week was just having these kids that cheered them on, made them feel great. But conversely, the kids all of a sudden realized that cycling is a lifelong sport.
00:34:57
bill
There's all these old people going up the hill and they were like, oh my gosh, these people are amazing.
00:34:58
Rich
Yeah.
00:35:01
bill
So both parties really got something out of it that was probably not intended.
00:35:06
Rich
That's a really great example. I think that, and there's also the, I don't know whether you call it a craft fair or like the, the, the Wednesday stop that we did.
00:35:08
Kristin Overton
Yeah, I love that.
00:35:17
bill
So
00:35:18
Rich
yeah that was also pretty cool. It was, it or Tuesday. What was the day that we, guess it was.
00:35:22
bill
that was on Wednesday. it was an incubator.
00:35:23
Rich
Yeah.
00:35:24
bill
It was an old elementary school that was an incubator program for really tiny nonprofits. And, you know, say a single mom's kind of, it's an a small town called Ignacio with, which does just doesn't have a lot of resources.
00:35:38
bill
It's on a Ute reservation down there and limited resources for sure. And the, Each of those little incubator nonprofits inside that school would get food and then the writers would buy the food at lunch.
00:35:56
bill
And they came out of it with a pretty good amount of money. And the writers were, it was a nice courtyard. People sat around talking and met these really cool people who are trying to do better things for the world and everybody enjoyed it.
00:36:08
Rich
Yeah. The food's great. The, you know, the, you know, just talking to the, you know, the, the i guess, hosts or vendors or whatever you'd call them, or, you know, the nonprofits.
00:36:19
Rich
Yeah, it was great.
00:36:20
bill
So we do try pretty hard to involve the community.
00:36:20
Kristin Overton
Yeah.
00:36:23
bill
And, you know, we want the communities to want us to be there. You know, in the last few years of Ride the Rockies, that was wain't waning because not anything...
00:36:34
bill
for the most part, anything what the Rockies did, just the the environment had changed where these towns had a hard time dealing with 2,000 people on bikes who were majority were camping and or in hotels, but it was just one night stays. And so once COVID really hit, it was really hard in towns infrastructure wise to have that kind of an influx for one night.
00:36:55
bill
You know, most of these music festivals or whatever are usually two to three nights and that's a bigger, much bigger impact.
00:37:01
Kristin Overton
yeah yeah that's awesome yeah it becomes you know more more of the experience versus just the ride which is you know that's huge yeah yeah right it's an experience yeah
00:37:11
bill
for sure.
00:37:12
Rich
It's an experience. Yeah. This is, you can't just call this a ride. This is really an experience. It's a vacation. And so like, you know, it's a great, you know, community building vacation.
00:37:22
bill
Yep.
00:37:23
Rich
All right, Bill. So we're super excited about being a partner with you and helping athletes, you know, get ready for this ride through a virtual riding experience. We've talked a little bit about this.
00:37:35
Rich
And, you know, we we we put this through the lens of kind of a coach's lens and some of the benefits. And we've got each kind of eight takeaways, like coaching takeaways that Coach K.O. and I are going to list out. Coach K.O., maybe you can list the first four.
00:37:51
Rich
I'll list the set the last four, the five through eight, and you know maybe just you know listen to the the takeaways that we're going to you know we're going to read out.
00:38:02
Rich
And maybe if you'd pick one or two of them that you think that you'd like to put an emphasis on in terms of the takeaways or benefits.
00:38:08
bill
Okay. All right.
00:38:11
Rich
All right. So Coach K, I'll let you lead us off.
Training Takeaways and Performance Enhancement
00:38:14
Kristin Overton
Yeah, sounds good. so guess the first one is you know familiarity reduces anxiety. So you know knowing the course boosts your confidence and and decision making when you're on the ride.
00:38:27
Kristin Overton
Secondly, you know training the terrain, you know not not just fitness, you're actually doing the terrain. So matching those efforts to the climbs as well as the the flats, the downhills, you know that kind of thing. It also allows you to practice pacing discipline. So they like I said, you know not just you know saying, oh, my FTP is 200. I'm going to shooting up this this mountain. You got to really dial it back. So you know the virtual pre-rides help prevent you know that early overexertion and petering out. And then climbs are about patience. So yeah's kind the same thing. you know Learn where to push and where to hold back and you know
00:39:07
Kristin Overton
what those little nuances are.
00:39:30
Rich
Coach feedback, accelerating learning. So, you know, we'll be giving some, you know, education and feedback during these sessions.
00:39:36
bill
Thank
00:39:37
Rich
So small adjustments around cadence, you know, and just understanding how to have a nice, you know, smooth pedal stroke will help make big differences.
00:39:47
Rich
And then execution beats fitness, smart strategy, really pacing yourself well, i guess is a little bit of a tie into some of the other comments, but really outperforms raw power, especially on multiple long days. So Bill, out of those eight, but a couple what's what's one or two that you' you'd emphasize?
00:40:06
bill
I
00:40:09
bill
think visualizing the the road and visualizing what's next and how to deal with what's in front of you best.
00:40:20
bill
You kind of said that, I think. And then I like the idea of of helping people understand
00:40:29
bill
It's more more to success than just harder pushing, like know the mixing up of the cadence, the proper gear usage, the you know all the different, the little things you mentioned, like the pedal stroke.
00:40:44
bill
mean I think that's that's the kind of stuff that can really be addressed in these environments. Because I used to teach spin glass and I know that was always something like I emphasized was, all right, let's do this section at your normal cadence or let's drop it 10 or let's add 10.
00:41:01
bill
So I think people, when they start to learn, there's the the skills of pedaling can make a really big difference on a big day. because then you're not just stuck in one space and that's where you start cramping. That's when you start getting uncomfortable. That's when your butt starts hurting the most.
00:41:17
bill
You're not staying, maybe it's good to stand up at once every 80 seconds or whatever it is that kind of relieves those pressure points.
00:41:18
Rich
Yeah.
00:41:23
Rich
Yeah.
00:41:24
Kristin Overton
Thank you.
00:41:25
Rich
Yeah. That's great. Thank you. That, that really, that really helps us too, as we think about like, you know, when we, when we emphasize things and we, when we teach these classes, we'll know what to, to lean into. So.
00:41:36
Rich
Hey, man, this has been a blast.
Fun Colorado Activities and Closing Remarks
00:41:38
Rich
You know, just going through this interview, exploring the the course again with you, the the preparation that we're going to do for for these athletes.
00:41:46
Rich
But we still have our fun segment. And I'm going to turn this over to Coach K.O. to close us out with our fun segment.
00:41:55
bill
Okay.
00:41:56
Kristin Overton
this This is always the best part of the of the night, right? Thanks to April creating these these great segments. So this segment is this or that Colorado edition.
00:42:08
Kristin Overton
So the segment where I make you choose between two genuinely beautiful Colorado things and you immediately regret being asked because you want to do both, but you only can pick one.
00:42:20
bill
okay
00:42:21
Kristin Overton
So going have five questions, two options each.
00:42:25
bill
Okay.
00:42:26
Kristin Overton
gut answer or it doesn't count, no hedging, no, oh, it depends on the season, whatever, you know, you just have to to pick it or forfeit. You know, if you if if you're hedging, you forfeit your altitude card, like that's it.
00:42:40
bill
Okay.
00:42:40
bill
That sounds fun.
00:42:41
Kristin Overton
So here we go.
00:42:42
Kristin Overton
So number one, okay. This or that, sunrise summit ride to Pikes Peak or sunset set trail run in Salida.
00:42:52
bill
Sunset trail on the slide.
00:42:54
Rich
I knew you were going to pick that. yeah I'm going to go with, you know, just because I, you know, I love this. I'm going to do the Sunrise Summit to ride to Pikes Peak.
00:43:05
Kristin Overton
And I knew that you were going to pick that rich. Just knew it. Uh, all right. Number two, Boulder coffee shop, spin meetup or solo mountain grind over Loveland past.
00:43:18
bill
Solo mountain grain.
00:43:20
Rich
Yeah. All right. I do that with you, Bill, but we've done it before. So let's do it again.
00:43:24
bill
Yeah.
00:43:26
Kristin Overton
Yeah. I feel like that's more epic.
00:43:28
Rich
Actually, guess it's not so that's right.
00:43:28
Kristin Overton
You can meet Boulder at the coffee shop anytime.
00:43:31
Rich
We'll just be back in Boulder.
00:43:33
bill
Yeah.
00:43:33
Kristin Overton
There you go. Awesome. All right, number three, gravel forever or I'm a pavement king or queen.
00:43:41
bill
Gravel forever.
00:43:43
Rich
Yeah. So one of these days I'm going to get a gravel bike.
00:43:45
bill
I don't even have a road bike anymore.
00:43:47
bill
So for the most part.
00:43:48
Rich
of Between the two of us, we make one real cyclist.
00:43:51
bill
Yeah.
00:43:52
Kristin Overton
There you go, there you go. So you're clearly the pavement king.
00:43:56
Rich
Pretty much, yeah.
00:43:57
Kristin Overton
Yeah, yeah. All right, number four, train through a famous Colorado single day snowstorm or skip the workout and snuggle up to some John Denver.
00:44:07
bill
Oh, John Denver ruined it.
00:44:12
bill
If you said jump snuggle up to watch a Taylor Sheridan show, that's a no-ran.
00:44:18
Rich
hu
00:44:18
bill
oh oh I might take John Denver. I'm not umm i'm over my days of training in bad weather.
00:44:25
Kristin Overton
There you go. There you go. I'm i'm with you, Bill. I'm all about snuggling. I don't care who I'm listening to.
00:44:32
bill
Isn't that why you guys do indoor show or indoor training so people don't have to do the outdoor stuff in the bad weather?
00:44:37
Rich
Exactly.
00:44:37
Kristin Overton
Exactly. Exactly. All right. Last one, guys. so Red Rocks concert or triple bypass finish line?
00:44:47
bill
Drupal wave has finished.
00:44:50
Rich
Yeah, especially if I can skip straight to the finish line.
00:44:52
bill
Yeah, right.
00:44:53
Rich
Count me in.
00:44:56
Kristin Overton
That's kind of cheating, isn't it?
00:44:57
Rich
yeah I guess so.
00:45:00
Kristin Overton
Oh, this is great. Yeah, I'm with April. Like, you know, it's hard to pick all of them. I just want to do everything.
00:45:06
bill
Yeah, no doubt.
00:45:16
bill
Yeah, no doubt. Cool.
00:45:18
Kristin Overton
So I'm going to put it out there to to the world. You know, drop your picks of this or that to our Facebook group page, tag at at Grit to Greatness Endurance, so we can see what what your combinations are. And if you have some story about, you know, sunrise on Pikes Peak or whatever it is, we want to hear about it. So so bring that to us.
00:45:41
Rich
Awesome.
00:45:43
Rich
All right. Let me close this out here with a real quick shout out to our show sponsor, Vespa Power. Vespa Power Endurance helps you tap into steady, clean energy so you can stay strong, focused, and in the zone longer. ves Vespa is not a fuel. It's actually a metabolic catalyst that shifts your body from burning sugar to burning fat, which is going to actually help you go further, farther, and longer.
00:46:05
Rich
Less sugar, higher performance, faster recovery. There is a discount code here in the show notes, G2GVespa15, or if you click on the link, that will automatically load the discount into your cart. Anything that you want to buy, anytime all of our athletes are using it. They are a sponsor that is on our kit. We believe in them that much. Thanks for spending time with us today and with Bill Plokk from Colorado's Ride here on the Grit to Greatness Endurance Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please follow
00:46:37
Rich
Grit to Greatness on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. It helps us reach more athletes like you. Please also follow Colorado's Ride. Stay gritty, train smart, and keep chasing greatness.
00:46:49
Rich
We will see you next week, and we're going to see you on these rides.